NAB reports (Jan-Dec 1944)

The conflicting claims of the FM and Television Panels for the number one television channel were also discussed. This phase of the panel’s deliberations was handicapped by the failure of any representative to appear for the FM Panel. Dr. Jolliffe appointed a committee of three in an effort to effect a compromise of the FM-Television allocation dis¬ pute. The committee consists of Mr. K. B. Warner rep¬ resenting the American Radio Relay League, Mr. R. E. Shelby representing Panel 6 on Television and Mr. C. M. Jansky from Panel 5 on FM Broadcasting. The commit¬ tee of three was authorized to select one of their members as chairman or, if they preferred, to elect a chairman not now a member of the committee. WHYN BUYS MOUNT TOM Mount Tom, historic Connecticut Valley landmark, is to become the future transmission site of television and FM programs. News of the purchase of the 1,200 foot mountain top, for this purpose, by the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation, operators of WHYN, Holyoke, Mass., was released to NAB on August 2. Mount Tom is said to be the highest spot in the Con¬ necticut Valley from the Franklin county hills down to Long Island Sound. It provides a view of the Connecti¬ cut State Capitol and a sweeping panorama of the Berkshires, to the northwest, and Mount Monadnock, to the northeast. Principal stockholders in the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation are Mrs. Minnie R. Dwight, publisher of the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, and Mrs. Harriet W. DeRose, publisher of the Hampshire Gazette, Northampton. ISSUES "THANK YOU" PROMOTION PIECE A “thank you” promotion piece has just been delivered by WFOY to the firms and business organizations in St. Augustine that assisted the station in putting the city and St. Johns county $700,000 over quota in the 5th War Loan. Total bonds sold during the drive — $1,929,561. General Manager J. Allen Brown said that the station additionally broadcast hundreds of spots, programs and special events features on a sustaining basis between June 12 and July 8. The sponsored programs consisted of eleven half hour night shows; twenty half hour afternoon programs; nine¬ teen quarter hour night shows; one quarter hour daytime program; three five minute daytime shows; and five one hour Sunday afternoon bondwagon programs. PRESENTATION CEREMONY RECORDINGS ENROUTE Pressings of the recorded ceremony in which the Chief Signal Officer of the United States awarded a Certificate of Appreciation to the National Association of Broad¬ casters are now enroute to the stations which requested them for broadcast purposes. Cue sheets and other instructions were mailed to station managers on August 2. The ceremony was not broadcast in Washington at the time it was recorded. The first airing of the event will occur when stations broadcast their transcriptions to local audiences the week of August 7. Brigadier General Jerry V. Matejka, Chief Personnel and Training Service, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, made the presentation to Harold Ryan, who accepted for NAB. A complete transcript of the record follows: ANN : Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing an official ceremony in Washington, D. C. The occasion is the presentation of a Cer¬ tificate of Appreciation from the Chief Sig August 4, 1944 — 262 nal Officer of the Army of the United States to the National Association of Broadcasters, in recognition of loyal and patriotic services rendered the Signal Corps by the broad¬ casting stations in the recruitment and training of military personnel. Brigadier General Jerry V. Matejka, Chief, Personnel and Training Service, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, will make the pre¬ sentation to Harold Ryan, President of the National Association of Broadcasters. The next voice you hear will be that of General Matejka. MATEJKA: Both the National Association of Broad¬ casters and the Chief Signal Officer have honored me highly in permitting me to give you this certificate. It is only a piece of paper, but is is given just as a decoration is bestowed by a grate¬ ful nation on a heroic soldier on the battle¬ field. It is the Chief Signal Officer’s hope that you will accept it in that spirit. The Signal Corps has been given big jobs to do, and one of the biggest has been to obtain and train the hundreds of thousands of men and women needed to transmit mes¬ sages, operate switchboards, give warnings of air attacks, design, furnish and maintain equipment, and to produce and distribute photographs and movies of the war. When the going was toughest, the National Association of Broadcasters took the lead in helping us in the Signal Corps to get the personnel we needed. Time is precious in war, and you gave us the time of your people and much time on the air. Every minute you gave us left Germany and Japan an hour less in which to exist and their time is now running short. They don’t like what the people you helped us get are doing to them. We are broadcasters together, you and we in the Signal Corps. When in the North African campaign I was honored to be General Eisenhower’s Chief Signal Officer, the Signal Corps did its part to broadcast the truth to friend and foe alike. Broad¬ cast teams landed with the assaulting troops and soon were on the air in Casablanca and Algiers. The 260,000 Germans and Italians who surrendered to General Eisenhower in Tunis and Bizerte in May, 1943, were first class fighting men in prime condition with all the food, airplanes, arms and ammuni¬ tion they needed, but they . and their com¬ manders were whipped physically and men¬ tally. The motto of a small, occupied, but still living country is: “Truth Prevails.” Who can say how much the truth broadcast to our enemies in North Africa influenced them to surrender? It gives me great pleasure to present to you and through you to all members of 'the National Association of Broadcasters, the Chief Signal Officer’s Certificate of Appre¬ ciation, with the hope that our country will soon be at peace so that we can continue our work together under happier circum¬ stances. ANN : General Matejka is removing the Certificate from its container. It is a large scroll in the color of parchment, signed by the Chief Signal Officer, Major General H. C. Ingles, and bears the official seal of the War De¬ partment of the United States. The word¬ ing of the Certificate is as follows : The Chief Signal Officer, Army of the United States, extends his appreciation to the National Association of Broadcast